Americans may have taken the first steps on the moon, but according to AFP an unnamed “Singaporean businessman, his wife and two children have paid USD one million to become the first Asian family to fly together on space-tourism airline Virgin Galactic.”
Stephen Attenborough, the Virgin Galactic commercial director, noted,“I had lunch yesterday with a guy who got in touch with us in Singapore, and over lunch he signed his contract for not just a seat, but for a whole flight.”
For USD one million this Singaporean family “will become, the first family from Asia to become astronauts together.” The businessman “chartered one exclusive flight for his family on the six-seat aircraft SpaceShipTwo,” and the family remains unnamed since the wife appears to still be in the dark about their upcoming space journey.
The blog Luxuo reports, “Virgin Galactic has sold bookings since 2005 at USD 200,000 per seat even though it has not yet set a firm timetable for space flights to be launched from New Mexico.”
Singapore is one of Asia’s highest concentrations of millionaires and Singaporeans have purchased nine out of the nearly 500 tickets sold worldwide.
Virgin Galactic has already ordered another spacecraft to meet the expected demand for space tourism.